West Chester, Pennsylvania

WCHE (1520 AM) broadcasts from downtown West Chester and is a local commercial radio station that provides news and entertainment to Chester County.

West Chester has been the seat of government in Chester County since 1786 when the seat was moved from nearby Chester in what is now Delaware County.

The borough was incorporated in 1799.

The library had its roots in a subscription library founded in 1815 by William Darlington and David Townsend and dissolved in 1831.

The West Chester Pike originally existed as a private turnpike connecting Philadelphia and West Chester between 1850 and 1918, when it became a public road.

== Culture and media == The West Chester Public Library has provided library services to area residents since 1872.

The Route 104 bus replaced a trolley service that connected West Chester to Philadelphia along the West Chester Pike between 1898 and the 1950s.

The library became permanently free and open to the public in 1905, coming under the authority of the borough council and school board.

The library built an extension for a children's library in 1916.

Published since 1932, it covers not only campus events, but also regional and national news.

The West Chester Garden Club landscaped the grounds and erected a wall around the courtyard in 1934.

The West Chester Downtown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Until September 1986, West Chester was served by SEPTA's Media/Wawa Line commuter rail line, then known as the Media/West Chester Line.

As of the census of 2000, 17,861 people, 6,265 households, and 2,662 families resided in the borough.

Peter and Paul School (East Goshen Township) was established in September 2001, with planning for the school beginning in 1997.

Marley & Me, starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, filmed scenes in West Chester in 2008.

== Demographics == At the 2010 census, the borough was 72.1% non-Hispanic White, 12.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.4% Asian, and 2.4% was of two or more ...

Among the major shopping centers in the area is Bradford Plaza, a 22-acre (8.9 ha) property with a 161,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) center which sold in 2014 to New York Life for...

The median income for a household in the borough from 2018 to 2022 was $71,875.

The flag of West Chester was officially adopted by Borough Council and debuted in early 2019, after a contest sponsored by local business The Fence Authority.

As of 2020 its enrollment is over 300.

=== Council members === as of November 5, 2021: == Education == === Public schools === The West Chester Area School District, an independent entity, manages the area's pub...

The county opted for the latter, and service on the line was cut back to Elwyn (service was re-extended to Wawa Station in August 2022).

The Netflix American comedy series Tires (2024–present), starring Shane Gillis and Stavros Halkias, take place in West Chester.